Ecological approach for the evaluation of structure and sustainability in the tourism industry

Abstract

Badaling is the main tourism area in Beijing. The development of tourism has generated considerable economic benefit in this region, but the tourism industry also brought considerable environmental pressure. To obtain a targeted upgrade plan for metropolitan tourism industry, static and dynamic analysis methods were used to quantitatively estimate the structure of the tourism industry in this region. In addition, the ecological footprint and ecosystem capacity models were used to evaluate the sustainable development of tourism. The results show that: (1) The structure of tourism in Badaling is better than that of Beijing, but the growth rate of tourism earnings is slower than the average value in Beijing. Overall, the region lacks competitiveness and the tourism industry in the area is in dire need of an upgrade; (2) the total ecological footprint due to tourism in the Badaling region is 381,098.28 hm2, and the ecosystem capacity is 4509.61 hm2 . It is in an obvious ecological deficit, and the development of the tourism industry is unsustainable. To relieve the pressure on the ecology in the Badaling region, we propose four policy suggestions: (1) develop disadvantaged sectors and enhance tourism industry competitiveness, (2) boost tourist transportation revenues relying on the Winter Olympic Games, (3) grow cultural and creative products and expand sales channels, and (4) strengthen inter-regional cooperation and alleviate local ecological pressure.